Month: June 2024

Trinity 5: Work in the Wait

30/6/24
Trinity 5

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
Psalm 130
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Mark 5:21-43


I wonder if any of these sound familiar or resonate with you…

Time waits for no man

Don’t wait for the right opportunity; create it (George Bernard Shaw)

Don’t wait for change. You change. (Earl Nightingale)


Never wait for tomorrow, what if tomorrow never comes? (Elvis Presley)

Lord, help me to live this day, quietly, easily. To lean upon Thy great strength, trustfully, restfully. To wait for the unfolding of Thy will, patiently, serenely. To meet others, peacefully, joyously. To face tomorrow, confidently, courageously. (St Francis of Assisi)

There is always work in the wait (Beth Moore)

The longer you wait to do something you should do now, the greater the odds that you will never actually do it. (John C. Maxwell)

We will all know what it is to wait. Wait for life, for death, for events, for surprises, for results, for people to arrive and depart, babies to be born. There is an art to waiting well. In the Gospel readings this morning we see experiences of people who are waiting in grief and sickness; probably the hardest times of waiting. We see the consequences in the story of David & Saul in 2 Samuel of what happens when impatience takes over.

The book of 2nd Samuel opens with a lament. Saul, Israel’s first king, had fallen out of God’s favour and was to be replaced by David, the shepherd boy and slayer of Goliath. Saul’s reign is decreasing and David’s popularity and success in battle is increasing. Saul is quickly losing his mind as he starts chasing David and his men rather than the enemies of Israel. Saul’s disobedience and bad decisions are weighing heavily.

Samuel had died by this point and all of Israel is mourning his death. Samuel was a man of national importance, their Winston Churchill as a comparison. Not a perfect man but certainly a wise one. Without Samuel to offer guidance, Saul is afraid and troubled. The Philistines are assembling against Israel. Saul, rightfully enquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him neither in dreams or by a prophet. This was one of those times where you think ‘really God? Where are you?!’

We do not know how long Saul waited for. Sometimes we have to wait on God. Or maybe God is waiting for us. Out of fear and insecurity Saul goes undercover to visit the witch of Endor. He had previously expelled all the mediums and wizards from the land which pleased God. The witch asks him who he wants called up from the dead. Saul wants Samuel!

Samuel is disturbed from his sleep of death and is none too happy about this! Saul admits that he is distressed by Philistines and God’s seeming lack of reply; so he has come to Samuel to tell him what to do.

Big mistake! Samuel tells Saul that this time tomorrow he and his sons will be with Samuel; that is dead! They are going to die in battle and the Philistines are going to take control of Israel’s army.

Waiting on God is a very important activity. We need to wait well and in obedience. It is not always easy, it can be frustrating especially if we think that God is ignoring us or has somehow become deaf to our prayers and pleas. We are not to turn to other mediums such as horoscopes, star signs, tea leaves or tarot cards etc. No!

Waiting well is to seek wise and trusted counsel from fellow Christians, spend time thinking and less time acting. We can ponder if the outcome would have been different had Saul faced his fears and waited longer for God to respond. Instead, Saul and his son Jonathan are dead. Jonathan is killed by the Philistines and Saul was badly wounded and had to fall on his own sword to end his life. Not a glorious ending for a king. David starts his reign by mourning the loss of his best friend Jonathan and of Saul even though he had been so awful to him.

Waiting is a major theme in the New Testament. I think we under-appreciate the periods of waiting that people had to do. The lengths of time that people had to wait are often throw-away lines; an aside to the main theme of the story.

Jesus is still around the lake on the particular day when he was confronted by the health issues of two females. One young and one older. The younger from an important family with care and support. The older is an unclean outcast and alone on the bottom rung. The younger with immediately life-threatening problems and the older with the misery of a long-term condition. Both wait with varying levels of hope and expectation.

These two also wait in fear. Jairus fears that his daughter will die. This is likely a new fear. The woman waits in fear that she will never be cured, never get better. This is a fear that has been going on for many years. Twelve years, think back to 2012. What were you doing? Do you have problems now that you did then? The women had been haemorrhaging for 12 years with some form of endometriosis or other menstrual problems.

Jesus goes with Jairus without hesitation when asked to come and lay hands on her. The woman is behind the crowd which gives her the opportunity to touch his clothes with the belief that she will be made well. What would it be like to have that much faith? Not even an appointment with the GP, just passing by his office.

Jesus stops and wants to know who touched him. Jesus stopped and waited. We do not know how long for. Imagine Jairus for a moment, what do you think his thoughts are right now? He is afraid that his daughter will die! He has got Jesus to come to his house, they are on the way and now are being held up by an unclean woman of the lower classes.

Jesus has no hesitation in healing her. What the Jews and probably even Jairus saw as unclean, Jesus sees as someone worth saving. Jesus waits until she comes forward and tells the truth. Jesus tells her that her faith made her well; go in peace and be healed. Imagine her fear in this moment after so long of being ignored and avoided.

Then the news that Jairus’ daughter has died. It could be that she died before the woman stopped Jesus. Imagine Jairus’ thinking now. ‘Ah! Maybe if this Jesus had not waited then his daughter would be alive! What if!’

Jesus carries on and goes to Jairus’ house. ‘Do not fear, only believe,’ says Jesus. The disciples and Jairus have just witnessed an example in the woman in what it is to only believe. After 12 years of waiting for things to get better, she heard about Jesus and had enough faith (probably not much) to believe.

Jesus could have healed the daughter from afar as he did on other occasions in the New Testament. He did not need to have made Jairus wait. Maybe Jairus needed to wait. To believe. To believe that Jesus had power but also that all people have worth to God. Maybe the woman needed to have her waiting come to an end at that moment. Jesus is not slow as we understand slowness. Maybe we need to learn from our waiting too.

How are we waiting? What are we waiting for today? I hope that we will not rush off to consult the mediums and star signs when we are waiting for answers like Saul did. Jesus made Jairus wait so he could tend to the woman who had been waiting for 12 years.God is always waiting for us. To believe, to be ready for what he has planned for us.

‘Don’t be afraid,’ Jesus says. God’s love is not that small. There is enough for the bleeding woman and the dying daughter. There is enough for all. We will be loved in our waiting and we might even be healed.

Trinity 3: Consequences & Moving Forward

An acrylic painting on wood illustrating the bible verse in Mark 4 describing the kingdom of God like a mustard seed. Jesus is seated with a child under the yellow-leafed branches of a tree showing her a tiny mustard seed. Jen Norton.

16/6/24
Trinity 3

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13
Psalm 20
Mark 4:26-34

If you can cast your minds back to last weeks or even better – read the readings for this week, we will continue to look at leadership and politics in the Old & New Testaments. Tis the season! Things have moved on for Samuel and Jesus.

We are a few chapters ahead in 1 Samuel. Israel’s first king Saul was anointed, it was a complete disaster as predicted and ended badly. Saul died by suicide and all his sons were killed by enemies. Saul was almost constantly at war and profited greatly from the plundering of his enemies. God had warned the Israelites what would happen; and it all came to pass in Saul’s kingship.

It was so bad that 1 Samuel 15:34 says “the Lord was grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.” Think about God’s sadness for a moment. God was sad. Sad that the people disobeyed him, turned away from the plans and purposes he had. I suspect he was sad over Saul’s awful death and the deaths of his sons. Sad about the loss of life. There are events and people in this world that make God sad.

As a king, Saul was the ideal candidate. He was handsome, from the right family as he had a wealthy father. You know what he did at his coronation? Saul hid! Samuel the prophet had to go and find him to present him to his people. Imagine King Charles running out of Westminster Abbey! Saul tried at the beginning. He was given two jobs: reign over the people of Israel and save them from their enemies. Yet Saul acts out of turn, does not obey God, makes his own decisions. God would have established Saul’s kingdom forever but does not in the end. We pick up the reading this morning where God has finally had enough; He is sorry that he made Saul king over Israel. Samuel and Saul part company too.

The whole of the OT is the story of a people who messed up and the God who loved them anyway. Part of the problem with the Israelites is that they keep worshipping other gods along with God. They make some decisions that they did not consult big G God on and they are punished. Samuel pleads with Israel to return to God with all their hearts and put away the foreign gods and God will deliver them from the Philistines. The Philistines are one of the biggest and most troubling enemies of Israel. Goliath was one of them.

If we are feeling frustrated at the state of this country or community, Israel provides an excellent example of what it is to get what it wants and then realise it isn’t that great. The story would have been totally different if Israel had sought out what God wanted for them.

How often do we do that in our own lives? Demand things of God, want him to do things our way? Sometimes he will give us what we want and we learn the hard way! God wants our obedience, we are to listen and follow him. Not the other way around.

In the end God will get his way. It is a new day for Samuel at the start of chapter 16. He is to put Saul and the past behind him so that he can anoint the next king, one of the sons of Jesse. David. The ruddy faced and beautiful boy.

We do well to remember that God does not look at outward appearances, but on the heart. It is jarring to think that God can be sad. I do not want to be the cause of God’s sadness nor be part of a country or community that makes God sad.

Mark – Jesus is still going strong. He remained in Galilee where he appointed his 12 apostles who were sent out to proclaim the good news. The crowds are growing as more and more people come to listen. Jesus begins teaching in parables about the kingdom of God. He uses analogies of the seed and sower, lamps under bushel baskets, more scattered seed and the mustard seed.

Why these things? Lamps and mustard seeds represent everyday miracles. We all know how they work. The kingdom of God is in the everyday stuff of life. This is drastically different from the kingdom of military power that many people thought Jesus would bring including the disciples.

Jesus is saying no. This Kingdom of God starts small and grows large; much larger than we can ever imagine. Once a mustard seed starts growing they need very little care and not much water. And they grow! They spread quickly, not exactly something you want in a well-tended English garden! Mustard seeds have small beginnings and also make a delicious mustard. The greatest of all condiments!

The kingdom of God starts small and grows as it spreads out and changes the flavour of the world around it.

As a church and I mean as a parish, we need to spread out and change the flavour of the world, the village and our families around us. Church is not contained to these four walls, this hour on a Sunday and only the people sitting here. Lord help us if that ever becomes our view of His church!

What we do as a church may feel small but it will grow like a mustard seed if we let it. If we choose to learn from the example in Israel as Samuel pleaded with them to serve God and follow him. If we focus more on our hearts, and the hearts of others and not on outside appearances – then we live in obedience and it will be well.

Trinity 2: Politics Matter!

1 Samuel 8:4-11,16-20
Mark 3:20-35

This last week has been politically fascinating; has it not? There have been elections in a number of countries around the world, the D-Day commemorations in the UK and France, the political debates in this country. You might not be interested and/or avoid the news right now. Regardless of feelings and even opinion; politics and particularly leadership matters very much to everyone.

The readings from 1 Samuel and Mark show us leadership from God’s perspective and the difficulty Jesus faced from his own family. Leadership is not an easy road to travel; never has been and likely never will.

I like the Old Testament. A lot. I am by no means an expert, it does take some time and energy to get one’s head around it and when you do there is beauty and story to be discovered. If I had to nut shell the Old Testament it is this: it is a story of a people who messed up and the God who loved them anyway. These people, Israel, had been chosen by God to be his people (unsure why them). As the ‘chosen ones’ they had to follow some rules; the Chema (love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, mind and strength and love your neighbour as yourself. Super easy!) Israel had to care for the neighbours, the widows and orphans and above love God.

Yet, they could not/would not do it. They focused on what they did not have, they worshipped other gods, nothing was quite good enough, they wanted what the neighbours had. Does any of this sound vaguely familiar?

In 1 Samuel, this all comes to a head as Israel demands a human king to look after them. Just like all the neighbours had. The Israelites thought this was a better option than obeying God. At this point, Samuel was an old man whose sons had chosen their own paths, disregarding their faith. Samuel would not be leading them for much longer.

Israel has reached a critical moment in their history, two ways to go here. The way of God or the way of themselves. This is the choice that every nation, people and we individuals still have.

Samuel gets a warning from God which he passes on about how awful the ways of a human king are going to be. A human king will turn their sons into war labourers, daughters will be put to work; he will take the best of their flocks, fields and vineyards for his friends, and then a 10% cut on top of that for his own personal use. This is grossly unfair.

However, the people will not listen and continue their demands, they are actively rejecting God for their own agenda. God’s response, despite the warning, is to give the people what they want. There are consequences, the Lord will not answer when they cry out because of the king. God did not do this because he is uncaring or gave up on his chosen people. He wanted to show them that His way is the better one, following him leads to life and not death.

If God is not at the centre of life and we choose to go our own way, there are consequences. It is foolish to think that free will comes without responsibilities.

Stay tuned as the first human king of Israel will be appointed in next week’s edition!

Mark’s Gospel

We are now in the early days of Jesus’ ministry and things are hotting up. Jesus is travelling, healing, teaching and gaining attention. He is quickly becoming a threat and irritant to the religious establishment by healing people on the Sabbath and declaring forgiveness of sins. This attention is likely causing some pressure on his family.

We do not know very much about Jesus’ family life. There are two incidents in Mark 3 that would indicate Jesus’ family life was not easy! His family certainly does not come across well. Mary and the brothers go to restrain him as public opinion was that ‘he had gone out of his mind’. Some of us may know what it is to have awkward/difficult/odd family members.

However, what Jesus is saying is lucid and makes sense. Jesus is pushing the disciples and the religious to look not just at the theory of God but the reality of God.

Everything Jesus was doing was good.

Everywhere Jesus went people were being restored to God, evil and sickness were banished, demons were exercised. The root of the problem was that the power Jesus was displaying could only come from two sources: God or the devil.

Jesus is not only proclaiming the word of God but performs it in action. If we read God’s word, then we should be able to see it in action. Evil simply cannot work against itself. His pushing was making his family and the religious leaders uncomfortable. His family was risking a bad reputation. The religious leaders could lose control of the population and they were willing to lie and deny the consequences of what Jesus was saying and doing was true.

We should be able to see the politics in action. The demands of the Israelites for a human king and rejection of God. The denial of what Jesus was teaching by those who were close to him and the false accusations by the establishment.

What can we do? How can we navigate the politics of the coming weeks and months? My suggestion is to put Jesus at the centre; read and listen to his word. Consider it in light of what we read or watch.

How do we keep God at the centre as a parish and as His beloved children? From the examples of 1 Samuel; choose God’s kingship over that of other imperfect and fallible humans. Care less about what the neighbours have and what you do not. God is faithful and he will give us what we ask for sometimes; be careful of what you are demanding and why. You just might get it!

From Mark, look to the love and goodness of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Living a God-centred life is not always easy. The temptation to lie and deny can be strong at times. Fixating on what other people think has a powerful influence on us; tuning it out to follow truth and conscience is never easy.

Good and saintly people of Charlwood and Sidlow Bridge, we will face consequences if we do not stay together. We cannot become divided over politics, opinion, preferences and all the myriad of things that can cause difficulties in churches.

We need to be united with God and with each. With God at the centre of our lives and churches there is a bright and hopeful future ahead of us.